


due north

by theriveroflight



Series: without a compass [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Not Beta Read, Pre-Canon, vent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27895420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: Raven learns to trust herself quickly.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen & Raven Branwen
Series: without a compass [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042638
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	due north

**Author's Note:**

> This is very much me venting a lot. I picked Qrow and Raven because a) it isn't any thing FNDM related and b) the situation I think applies.
> 
> I wrote this over the past hour and a half, or so.
> 
> Disclaimer:I am an only child.

Raven and Qrow don’t always have the last name Branwen. That was  _ taken  _ on their application forms, and somewhere along the lines it just became reality.

But when they are born they are Raven and Qrow, of the Branwen Tribe, and nothing else. Birds of a feather, so to speak, twins.

People sometimes get killed on raids.

The strongest lead. The weak bask in their leadership. And the children are not allowed to fight.

There are very few children. Most of their recruits come from people choosing to join when they are old enough, not from the tribesmen having children.

Accidents happen, though, and Raven has known from the very beginning that she and Qrow were not a purposeful act, but the result of carelessness.

They have both been faced, after all, with the scathing insults that come from their parents’ choice to keep them, their carelessness that led to the existence of the twins.

And while Qrow doesn’t need protection, Raven shields him anyways, wherever she can afford to.

People sometimes die in raids.

But those people are rarely the strong, the leaders of them all.

So, when their tribesmen come back, taking with them the bodies of their parents, neither of them know what to say.

Qrow drags Raven away before they can witness too much of it. She knows, in that moment, that all she will ever have is herself, and perhaps her brother. Perhaps.

***

She leaves Qrow behind after they figure out what his Semblance is. Everyone leaves him out, so he fights harder to stay.

She can’t show her weakness for him in front of their tribe, but she shows her support in subtle ways — pairing up with him on partner missions, arguing that their coordination as twins will work to counter her brother’s Semblance.

***

She is wary of the leadership after that. She and Qrow are sent to Sanctum Academy to learn to make their own weapons — most of the tribe comes with something they can wield, and they are still as of yet untrained in fighting. They can hunt and scout, but they still can’t  _ really  _ fight.

They learn several different styles of fighting.

Qrow, ever the overachiever, picks the hardest weapon — a scythe. He has plenty to prove, so she  _ understands,  _ but for crying out loud she wants to go back to the tribe ASAP.

Raven chooses something more direct. A sword, with the ability to switch what kind of dust the blade uses. It’s fancy enough to not catch the attention of the instructors, and tough enough for the tribe. 

And they’ll always have dust-pillaging opportunities. Robbing the SDC of profits is always a plus to her.

Qrow fixates on the leadership in the Academy. And she wonders  _ why, why  _ when there are better leaders, better places, better  _ academies. _

And they’re sent the application for the Huntsmen Academies. Beacon, Haven, Atlas, Shade.

Raven doesn’t want to go, but Qrow is the one that rats them out.

“Oh, good,” the chieftain tells them. “You can learn how to kill Huntsmen. And then we will never have to worry about another again.”

Raven narrows her eyes, but Qrow nods.

“We’ll go.”

***

The Branwen tribe is not as infamous in Vale. They know  _ of  _ bandits, but there is no one tribe most prominent among them. So they pick Beacon Academy, if not because they will  _ never  _ bow to Atlas and Vacuo is too far from their tribe.

Her Semblance makes it easy for them to be partnered at initiation. They pick a piece at random and make it back to the cliff in stealth and silence. They encounter Grimm and other people, but they are the first to make it back up.

They are paired up with two people that Raven vaguely remembers encountering, especially the girl in the white cloak that’s now leading them.

Team STRQ.

Raven already knows that this will not end well for anyone involved.

***

They all fight well on their own merits, and they train well as a team, even if professors all comment on their stiffness around each other. Summer’s Semblance makes Raven haplessly angry, but she understands that it’s a good Semblance for a leader to have — and they don’t share Qrow’s Semblance with their team.

Taiyang doesn’t elaborate on his Semblance, either. Raven and Summer both have Semblances that involve other people — and they all acknowledge that it is a good idea for Raven to have portals to all of her teammates.

She realizes, abruptly, that the only person she can get to is Qrow — she has no other remaining attachments. Her Semblance was  _ after  _ the death of their parents, and she has no one in the tribe that she is close enough to in order to  _ have  _ that kind of attachment.

However, she acknowledges that it would be beneficial to keep an attachment to the team, if only to them.

Raven, after all, has never been one for  _ attachment. _

***

“I…don’t know what to do,” she confides to Qrow. They were sent to kill Huntsmen. And she  _ wants  _ to stay with that duty. However, it is becoming abruptly more clear that they can no longer cling to that purpose. She knows Qrow, morality-driven as he is, will stay with Summer and Tai to fight against this Mistress.

She feels like she’s been fighting someone else’s war all her life, and now she needs to pick which one to fight.

Her tribe, or these new people? The people that she was supposed to be learning to  _ kill. _

Raven’s never had qualms about killing others. She is strong enough to do it. But she has never had to.

“Stay with me,” Qrow says, but it sounds like a question.

Raven has always chosen to follow Qrow. But now she needs to make her own choice. Sink or swim, now or never, pick a leader.

She chooses herself.

And she chooses to stay.

***

And then it all falls apart. She abandons a blonde-haired child on Patch with Taiyang, she leaves Qrow, and she comes flying back to her tribe.

She knows, in the end, that she can fight to be accepted there. Because she knows at this point that she  _ is  _ stronger than any of them could possibly be. Strength is respected. Strength is worshipped.

Raven, the strongest of all, can be both if she goes back.

So she follows her instincts. She is, after all, the only person that she can trust. The only person she knows to trust.

Qrow has picked his side.

And Raven has chosen herself. If that makes her selfish, then so be it, but she is the only person that she can trust to lead.

**Author's Note:**

> There will probably be a sequel with Qrow, because I am currently having a lot of feelings about personal issues.


End file.
